Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Sowing Gold in Atalanta Fugiens
A man in a feathered hat walks across a cultivated field scattering round discs. The sixth emblem’s motto identifies what he sows as gold and names a white foliated earth. The following discourse compares the farmer, physician and chymist through their efforts to assist nature. It explains that chymistry borrows the operations and language of agriculture: ground is prepared, seed is entrusted to it, and heat and moisture support growth. Read beside that prose, the engraving gives the agricultural comparison a visible actor and setting.
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In the sources
The sown material is named as gold
DocumentedThe motto supplies the identity of the round forms scattered by the figure in the engraving.
Agriculture supplies a working comparison
DocumentedThe discourse explicitly connects chymical work with the operations, terminology and conditions of agriculture.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows Michael Maier’s Latin and German Atalanta Fugiens in the scanned edition dated 1618. Statements are attributed to that historical emblem book. The source links identify the actual image, music or prose page; the interpretation is editorial.
Original passages
Source 1
Atalanta Fugiens
Seminate aurum vestrum in terram albam foliatamOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Emblema VI, printed p. 33, motto and engraving
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Historical Latin wording retained; long s, line breaks and spacing normalised for quotation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0034
- Original scan leaf
- 41
- Recorded leaf number
- 41
- Current Reader position
- 34
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
Chemia enim agriculturae operationesOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Discursus VI, printed p. 34, agriculture and chymistry
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Historical Latin wording retained; long s, line breaks and spacing normalised for quotation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0035
- Original scan leaf
- 42
- Recorded leaf number
- 42
- Current Reader position
- 35
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
